Zero Tolerance
by pbow
Summary: No Fighting, Zero Tolerance. That the rule of the school... Or should it be?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I reap on gains from using the characters and situation from the hit TV series **Kim Possible**, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company. I do this strictly for pleasure, not for profit.

Xxxxxx

Fighting

Chapter 1

Zero Tolerance

Xxxxxx

It was a typical day at Middleton High School. The cheer squad had just started to practice their usual routines at the end of the school day when the incident started.

It begun when Bonnie Rockwaller threw out a snappy barb at Kim Possible and her boyfriend, Ron Stoppable. That drew a veiled retort from the redhead which brought about an outright slanderous lie thrown back by the teal-eyed brunette which brought an equally harsh response from the fiery redhead.

Then thing got ugly.

The verbal repartee continued for a short time until, in frustration, Bonnie flagrantly attacked the redheaded head cheerleader throwing wild fists and ill-placed kicks at the girl who knew 16 styles of kung fu. Kim defended herself against the onslaught for over a minute, expertly deflecting the punches and kicks, until one finally got through.

It wasn't the most professional of punches that barely grazed its mark but it did some damage, scratching Kim on the cheek. (Bonnie's fingernails had been filed and polished to a razor sharp perfection over the years.)

Anyway, that was the final straw that broke the camel's back.

Two seconds later, Bonnie was sprawled out on the floor, out cold and Ron was desperately trying to calm down the redheaded tornado that was still wailing away in his arms, taking a few blows himself in the process.

"_Possible, Rockwaller, Stoppable! My Office! NOW!_"

The demand came from Mr. Steven Barkin, Vice Principle and the chief disciplinarian for the school who was standing in the doorway to the gym and had witnessed the end of the fight. Before following the three teens to his office, (Bonnie having recovered quickly and was once again on her feet,) he told the rest of the cheer squad to write down what had happened and to submit their incident reports to him before they left for the evening.

Mr. Barkin immediately sat down behind his desk when they arrived at his office and he motioned for the three teens to take a seat in the chairs in front of his desk. Since there were only two chairs, Kim and Bonnie sat down while Ron stood behind his girlfriend like a proper gentleman.

"I'm sorry, Mr, B., but I..." Ron started to apologize before he was cut off by a simple hand raised by the large administrator.

"I don't want a word out of any of you until I ask for it."

The sentence came out extremely soft for the normally overt ex-Marine, but the terseness of the order behind it came through loud and clear.

The four sat there in silence for all of ten minutes before there was a light knock on the door. Barkin barked out, "Enter," and waited while Tara timidly entered the office.

"Here are all of our written statements," the platinum blonde squeaked as she handed over a small stack of papers.

Mr. Barkin swiftly paged through the six pieces of paper before he turned to Tara and gruffly said, "The rest of the squad is dismissed for the time being but_ no one,_ will discuss the incident in the gymnasium with anyone else unless expressly questioned by a school administrator. Tell the other girls on the squad. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir," Tara quickly answered as she glanced over her shoulder out the still partially open door. "The other girls are standing out in the hallway and heard, you so we all got the message."

"Good. Dismissed," Mr Barkin absently said as he waved the blonde girl out of the office while starting to read the first page in earnest. Tara weakly waved to the three teens with a grim look on her face before she snuck out the door and quietly closed it behind her.

It didn't take but a minute for Mr. Barkin to finish reading the six pages of testimony, as brief as most of them were. He paused in contemplation for a few seconds before he tapped the six pieces of paper on his desk to tidy them up and stowed them in an empty manila folder. He sat up straight at his desk and announced, "All right people, listen up. All three of you are suspended. Possible and Stoppable, you're suspension is for three days for fighting. Rockwaller, you're suspension is for five. This incident will go on all of your permanent records."

"But I didn't do any of the fighting," Ron adamantly protested in a falsetto voice that always came out whenever he was extremely excited or anxious.

"That's true, Stoppable," Mr. Barkin replied as he stared at the blonde boy. "But you didn't try to break up the fight when it first started, either."

"None of the other cheerleaders tried to stop it," Kim calmly pointed out having finally settled down from the brawl.

"That's also true," Barkin ceded as he turned to the redhead. "But the other members of the cheer squad do _not_ know how to fight. Stoppable does, so he should've been able to step in and stop the melee."

"But why is my suspension longer than those two losers?" Bonnie whined in protest.

"For the simple reason that you started it," Barkin growled as he rose from his chair, leaned on the desk and towered over the well-tanned brunette. "You started both the verbal exchange _and_ the fisticuffs. Now get out of my office and I don't want to see any of you until _after_ your suspensions are over." He quickly sat back down and started writing out something, more than likely the official incident report concerning the fight.

Ron was about to protest again but Kim quickly slapped her hand over his mouth and dragged him out of the room, leading him to their nearby lockers. Bonnie simply stomped out of the office and the building in an all-out snit.

Kim finally removed her hand from Ron's mouth when they got to her locker. Ron immediately blurted out, "Why'd did ya do that, KP?"

"Because Mr. Barkin would've extended your suspension if you said anything else, Ron. You've got to learn that there are many different ways to handle a confrontation besides the direct head-to-head method."

Ron was about to counter her theory before he thought about it for a second. He realized Kim was probably right. She had been thinking about majoring in International Diplomacy in college so she should know just how to handle different situations. He sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck and apologized, "I guess you're right KP. I was still a little hot under the collar with Bon Bon so I wasn't thinking properly. Your cooler head prevailed."

"Thank you sweetie," Kim acknowledged his compliment and, after checking the empty hallways for any sign of Barkin or another teacher, gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "Now, lets head on home. I want to get started on our appeal before mom and dad get home. They're not going to like me getting suspended." Kim quickly grabbed a few textbooks from her locker.

"Appeal?" Ron questioned as he followed suit and grabbed the books he thought he'd need during his three day suspension from his locker. "I didn't know we could appeal our suspensions?"

"Ron," Kim laughingly chided her boyfriend. "Didn't you read the student handbook when they handed them out at the beginning of the school year?"

"Nah," Ron waved off the question as he shut his locker and took Kim's hand as they walked out of the school. "I don't need any instruction manual for knowing how to be a student. All it sez for us to do is go to our classes and not get on the bad side of Mr. B."

"There's more to the student handbook than that," Kim laughed at Ron's naivete. "There's one whole section on suspension procedures and how to appeal it. Come on. I'll tell you all about it while we grab a bite to eat at my house."

Xxxxxx

Kim stretched out on her bed, her back propped up against the headboard, as she jotted down a few things in a spiral bound notebook. She would occasionally take a bite of the wonderful chicken salad sandwich that Ron had made when they got to her house. There hadn't been much to snack on when they arrived but Kim had found some leftover broiled chicken in the refrigerator and Ron quickly threw together the most delicious chicken salad she'd ever tasted. (She found out that Ron's secret ingredient was a little horseradish sauce mixed in with the mayo to give it a little extra zing.)

Ron sat at Kim's computer desk pecking away at the keyboard, using a search engine to look for examples that his girlfriend had suggested.

Of course he'd already long ago finished his sandwich... and his soda... and the whole family sized bag of nacho chips he had brought along for the both of them.

Rufus watched from his perch at the edge of the desk, his beady black eyes shifting between the two teens, unsure what all of the fuss was about. Sure, Bonnie had caused a ruckus at cheer practice and it was a bigger brouhaha than normal between the brunette and his Kim, but he didn't think it was such a big deal. If something like that had happened in a colony of naked mole rats in the wild, the aggressor would simply have been thrown out of the nest bringing harmony once again to the clan. Ergo, Bonnie should be sent away, not his Kim and Ron.

"Okay, KP," Ron said as he turned from the computer to the redhead as the results of his research printed up on her printer. "I got a half dozen examples, just like you wanted. Now, what are we gonna do with them again?"

"All this is fodder for our appeal," Kim said as she started reading what he had dug up. "Tomorrow, we're going to go to Mr. Barkin's office and see if we can get out suspensions expunged from our school records."

"We're sponging our expulsions?" Ron quipped with a sly but goofy smile. "Won't that hurt?"

"You goofball," Kim giggled at her boyfriends antics. It was something she truly loved about him. No matter what the sitch, Ron could always crack a joke and make her laugh. "We weren't expelled, just suspended from classes for three days and this information might just get us back into school sooner... and maybe even help you out with your grades in History Class."


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I reap on gains from using the characters and situation from the hit TV series **Kim Possible**, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company. I do this strictly for pleasure, not for profit.

Xxxxxx

Fighting

Chapter 2

Tolerance?

Xxxxxx

"Stoppable, Possible, what are you doing here in school? You know you were suspended and shouldn't be here for three days," Mr. Barkin barked at the two teens as they entered the school the next morning. He had come in to work an hour early to prepare for the three classes that he had to substitute teach and had only been there five minutes before he saw the teen couple enter the building.

"We just dropped by to challenge our detention, Mr. B.," Ron happily chirped as he held out a four page report to the main bane of his high school life.

"He means our suspension, Mr. Barkin," Kim quickly clarified.

"Suspension, detention," Ron waved off the correction. "They both mean we're being hung up."

"Challenging your suspension," the large teacher quietly said as he snatched the papers from Ron's hands and started to page through them. "What is this?"

"This," Kim said, indicating the report in his hand, "is our rebuttal to the No Fighting, Zero Tolerance policy that you and the school adhere to. If a person is attacked, he or she should have the option to at least defend themselves. They should _not_ be punished if they didn't instigated the fight."

"You have an interesting point, Possible," Barkin absently said as he went back to the beginning of the report and started to read it in earnest while walking to his office. "I see here you've cited different events in history to validate said point going back to the War of 1812."

"Yeah, Mr. B.," Ron said as the three enter the Vice Principle's office. "That's when the English blockaded France and forced American sailors into the British Navy against their will. They also supported a few hostile Indian tribes around the Great Lakes. I guess the English didn't like us splitting off from their empire forty or fifty years or so earlier during the American Revolution and wanted us back."

"That's obvious, Stoppable," Mr. Barkin almost shouted before he calmed down a bit. He looked at his two students: one a true scholar and the other... well his grades were a joke but he did pass, barely. The big teacher quizzed, "Tell me why you included World War One?"

"Germany began..." Kim started to say before she was cut off by Barkin.

"I know you know the material, Possible." He turned to the tow-headed boy and said, "Stoppable, tell me how American got involved in the war."

"That's easy, Mr. B.," Ron smiled. "Germany was sinking our merchant ships and said we couldn't be neutral. That's similar to what happened at the Gulf of Tonkin which led to the Vietnam conflict, and also the sinking of the U.S.S. Maine which started the Spanish American War. We also threw in the 'unprovoked and _das-tard-ly'_ attack on Pearl Harbor. A date that will live in infamy." (Ron pronounced 'unprovoked and dastardly' exactly the way President Roosevelt had in his famous speech declaring war on Japan at the start of America's involvement in World War Two.)

"That's correct," Mr. Barkin huffed, thinking Ron didn't know the material. He had to find out where Ron had learned all of the information and asked, "How do you know all of this? You didn't seem know it on the tests in History Class a few years ago."

"Oh," Ron yelped in surprise as he anxiously rubbed the back of his neck. "Well you see, I got the information off the internet. It's a whole lot more fun looking it up then when I had to simply read it outta our textbooks."

"Ron looked up all of the information in that report," Kim said, pointing at the six pages in Barkin's hand, "and I collated and wrote it."

"And we even listed the websites I found the info on at the end of the report," Ron added with a happy grin.

"And the lesson you learned is..." Barking prodded.

"That we Americans will not stand by when someone attacks us sir," Kim proudly stated as she straightened up a bit in her seat, obviously proud of her American Heritage. "When a injustice is perpetrated against us, we _will_ fight back."

"And what does all that have to do with your suspension, Possible?" Mr. Barkin slyly asked, already knowing the answer that the redhead was about to give him.

"Bonnie Rockwaller has been harassing and belittling Ron and I for the longest time, Mr. Barkin," Kim firmly answered with more than a little tweak in her voice. "We've held out as long as we could, only answering her barbs with silence or retorts. But when she finally attacked me, well, I could only answer fire with fire."

"And KP only defended herself at first," Ron quickly added. "She didn't hit Bonnie until Bon Bon scratched her cheek."

"Okay, I'll accept that answer... for now," the large teacher said with a nod. He turned to the blonde boy and slyly queried, "But what about you, Stoppable? Why didn't you step in and break up the fight when it started?"

"Wellll," Ron hemmed and hawed a bit as he nervously rubbed the back of his neck. "You see, I know KP can handle herself so I kinda let her take care of the situation. If it woulda endangered the other girls on the squad, then I woulda stepped in and redirected it so none of them got hurt. And besides, I don't want Kim to start stepping into my fights with the bullies in D Hall, so why should I step into her battles?"

"You're being bullied in D Hall?" Kim queried, having just realized why Ron occasionally looked a little disheveled after he'd had to travel that specific hallway. He always tried to avoid going there, but sometimes Ron had to take a short cut through that area to get to class on time.

"Not really, KP," Ron anxiously chuckled. "Usually I take the Mahatma Gandhi approach. You know, using non-aggression tactics. I just let them do what they usually do to me and hope they eventually see the error of their ways."

"You're having trouble with a few students in D Hall?" Barkin begged in astonishment. This was also the first time he'd heard about bullying in his school. "I want names, mister!"

Ron gave the large teacher the names of the two people who caused all of the trouble in that wing of the school, and the times it normally happened. Mr. Barkin jotted down a few notes to remind himself to check out the accusation. If anything, he knew bullies normally stuck to a schedule and harassed the same mark at the same time whenever they could.

"Anyway," the big teacher said as he opened up a file on his desk, took the papers out of it and ripped them in two, "I'll accept your argument and erase both of your suspensions from the records and your report may lead to an addendum to the 'No Fighting, Zero Tolerance' policy when I present it to the School Board. Now, get out of here, you're free to go to your classes today."

"Thanks, Mr. B.," Ron happily chimed as he swiftly ran to the office door and opened it. "We'll see you in class." He quickly exited the room, not wanting to give the large teacher any time or cause to change his mind.

"Yes, thank you Mr. Barkin," Kim echoed her boyfriend's sentiment as she sedately headed for the open door. "A suspension would've looked so much worse on my permanent records than just the detention I received during my Freshman year."

"No problem, Possible," Barking said as he followed the redhead out of the office, hoping he had time to do the things he'd needed to get done before classes started. This little interruption had set him back ten minutes. Out of curiosity he asked, "What are you and Stoppable going to do now? There are still fifty minutes before classes start."

"Don't worry, Mr. Barkin," Kim lightly chuckled as she quickly headed off to find her boyfriend, "we'll find something to occupy our time."

"Yes, I'm sure you will," the large teacher chuckled to himself, knowing that some of that time would more than likely be spend in a well secluded spot violating a few PDA rules, and he really didn't care. They had done good on the appeal so maybe they deserved a little alone time. Maybe.

"There you are, Mr. Barkin," the teal-eyed brunette snarked as she raced up to him waving a small report in her hand. "I want to appeal my suspension."

"On what grounds, Rockwaller?" Mr. Barkin asked, knowing that this unnecessary appeal may well lead to a headache. He knew Bonnie's suspension was justified and the appeal would more than likely be dismissed, but he had to hear her out. That's the way the system was set up.

"On the unwritten rules of the Food Chain," Bonnie answered as she opened up her report and pointed to a specific paragraph. "As the top person on the Food Chain, I'm allowed, and almost _obligated,_ to put down any and all people below me."

"Good Lord!" Mr. Barkin groaned, put his head in his hands and slowly shook it, thinking that this might be a good time to ask his first sick day since he was seven years old.


End file.
